Thursday, September 23, 2010

Crystal Jade @ Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

The Wife is finally down under in Melbourne with me and it looks like life will now get slightly busier as it is the duty of the Husband to take her out venturing in the city for the next few days to get accustomed to the area and transit her life here from what may appear to be a holiday to a long term stay. It doesn't help that i am still waiting for news as to whether i will get the job i interviewed for in Brisbane.

Now that means either a short post here and there if i can wake up early enough, if not read my archives to cure that hunger pang of yours.

A couple of weeks ago, i started the short concise reviews, just to cover some places that i hadn't had the opportunity to take pictures of the food.

Today is one of them, tweaked with some teaser pictures from the phone.

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Now Dim Sum in Melbourne can get a bit tricky here with more than a dozen of restaurants serving "yum cha" as they call it here, with some catered to the western tastebuds while others remain slightly true to their hearts. In comparison to Adelaide, when i last left, Chinatown had no more than a handful of chinese restaurants and most of them never fail to amaze me with their good dim sum.

Having tried Shark Fin House and Shark Fin Inn, nothing too remarkable but not too shabby either, Crystal Jade was put up to the test.

Now based on some research, Crystal Jade in Melbourne is not linked to the big Crystal Jade Group who owns restaurants all over South East Asia. The only things they share are the name and the Hong Kong cuisine.

Now with a simple modern decor with some asian touches to the renovation, the dim sum that they serve is quite good and is on par with what the goodies we get from Malaysia and even Hong Kong.

Most of their seafood dumplings like the "har kao", "tai chi kao" or "hoi xin kao" (prawn, scallop or seafood dumpling) were filled with fresh ingredients. The char leung (dough fritters wrapped with rice roll) was done much better than the other two places. If you are feeling much more adventurous, try their beef tendon or tripe, the satay squid or the chicken feet (which are huge!).

The noodles also fared quite decently, having tried the classic "wat tan hor" and a braised yee mee with minced meat and eggplant. Worth re-ordering.

However, the only downside is their pricing with per pax ranging from AUD 20-35. My second visit where it was the Wife and I, our bill was AUD 40 for the two of us and it didn't exactly leave me filling too full too. My recommendation is always go in a table of 3 or 4 as most dim sum dishes come in a portion of 3-4 pieces.

Address and contact details:

Level 2
154 Little Bourke St
Melbourne 3000 VIC

Tel: 03- 96392633

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. Feeling like eating some dim sum whether on a weekday or weekend? Crystal Jade does the job but does no further if you want something to wow you away. Just a warning, it can get quite crowded too, a common sight with most chinese restaurants on Chinatown. If you really want something authentic inclusive of the atmosphere too, try driving to Boxhill.

PS: Last week i received an email from Sara from the Fresh Air Fund telling me about The Fresh Air Fund who are still looking for runners and sponsors to join their Fresh Air Fund-Racers team for the NYC Marathon on on November 7th. They have until September 30th to register our racers, so they need to fill the spots quickly. So anyone out there planning to go to NYC during the period or are in NYC, go to their website for more information. Do your bit for charity and running.

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About Me

It is time i update this little space of mine. To new readers, you have just entered a very dangerous space where there is lots of delicious food floating around resulting in delusional cravings.
You have been warned.
Feel free to email me if you would like to give me any comments and etc @ chen.z.jun(at)gmail.com